The Friendship Cure: Reconnecting in the Modern World

Psych Central » Psychology by Tina Arnoldi - 1h ago Preview

 
 
• AUTO POST
 
• SAVE TO EVERNOTE

People today are lonely. Even though people are wired to connect with others, many don’t have the friendships they need. In The Friendship Cure: Reconnecting in the Modern World, Kate Leaver shares stories and experiences about friendship in today’s world and she tries to explain why friendships are so important.

Our culture works against friendships. We are taught to build up ourselves as individuals and to be successful. As a result, we are unsure about how to truly connect with each other. It takes effort to prioritize people in our lives. Only when we are willing to put relationships above our professional success and ambitions are we able to connect with others.

Weaver brings in a lot of pop culture, referencing people like Taylor Swift and her “squad goals.” For some, Swift emulates the ideal — a life where people embrace other people in their personal circles. The implication is that other women aspire to the same squad goals seen with celebrities. Although many of her stories are geared toward women, she also includes a chapter about bromance, friendship between guys, in addition to a chapter about whether or not men and women can be friends, again referencing pop culture with the movie When Harry Met Sally.

Leaver discusses work friendships and how those can make an impact on how people feel about the workplace. It only takes one good friend to make an unpleasant job more appealing. But it is impossible for people to find that connection at work if they think of the workplace only as a professional environment.

Leaver also considers online friendships. Being online makes it very easy to find new friends that have a lot in common. Yes, there is a lot of superficiality with loose connections on a platform like Facebook, but Leaver says these platforms could instead be viewed as a way to bring people together with common interests. It enables people to find others they would not necessarily come across in their day-to-day lives. Rather than critically viewing the internet as a tool that serves only to isolate us, it could be a technology that instead brings us together.

Leaver references some popular apps for connections such as Tinder — although that is definitely not one people use to seek friendship. However, there are other apps available with a clear goal of establishing friendships rather than casual connections. The opportunity is there to use technology to get people connected in real life.

Finally, Leaver addresses friendship breakups — not something people talk about often, although it happens. She shares stories of people who had to break up with a toxic friend and those who found themselves getting broken up with, and the resulting surprise and hurt when it happened.

The bottom line is that almost everyone experiences loneliness at some point in their lives. Research demonstrates loneliness is a health epidemic that can make us physically sick and produce medical symptoms. And living in a culture that is about success and personal ambition causes people to work more, resulting in less energy and time to connect with others, further increasing feelings of loneliness.

Only toward the end of the book does she get into the mental health implications of the lack of friendships. She shares some of her personal experience, noting that depression comes, in part, from loneliness and that people need friendships for mental wellness. When people have friendships, they also have better physical and mental well-being.

The Friendship Cure is presented as a popular science and sociology book, which is appropriate. It is a study of friendship based on the author’s anecdotes and what we see in popular culture more so than scientific research. Those who have a general interest in friendship and enjoy pop culture references may enjoy The Friendship Cure. And perhaps it will help people understand how important friendship is, how friendships look today and the impact they have on mental health.

The Friendship Cure: Reconnecting in the Modern World
Harry N. Abrams, October 2018
Paperback, 304 pages

Life After Divorce

World of Psychology by Psych Central Guest Author - 1h ago Preview

 
 
• AUTO POST
 
• SAVE TO EVERNOTE

You can get through this.

Coping with life after divorce for a single father is tough for a multitude of reasons.

There’s the grief, anger, hurt, loneliness, and sense of failure.

You have to learn how to move on and how to start a new life along with the financial burden of paying for your attorney, the cost of setting up a new household, spousal maintenance, and child support.

And most importantly, a life when you’re newly divorced is tough because you have less time with your kids.

9 Easy Ways to Be a More Positive & Effective Single Parent

As dismal as all these sound, by no means is coping with divorce and its aftermath a life sentence for single parents a life sentence.

What may seem to be a sad state of affairs is just where things start out.

If you have the courage and will to make your life — and your kids’ lives — better, you can create an amazing life.

To re-start your life after divorce as a divorced single father, here are 3 steps you need to take.

1. Heal

You must take care of yourself and heal from your divorce. You’ve got to deal with all the uncomfortable emotions that the end of your marriage has stirred up.

It’s only by looking directly at each emotion that engulfs you that you’ll be able to deal with it and put it in its appropriate place.

If you don’t work through your feelings about your divorce, you’ll be doomed to carry them with you for the rest of your life.

And that will color the rest of your life a gray shade of miserable.

Although you’ll be doing the heavy lifting on this work, that doesn’t mean you have to do it all on your own.

There are plenty of people who would be glad to support you: your family, friends, spiritual leader, therapist, or a divorce coach.

The bonus here as far as life after divorce for dads goes is that as you heal, your kids will notice.

And when they believe and see that you’re OK, they’ll be able to heal too.

It’s only after you’ve started regaining your emotional equilibrium that you’ll be able to effectively deal with the other huge challenges of your life instead of just going through the motions.

2. Plan

Just like everything else after divorce, your financial status will change too.

The combined income you and your children’s other parent shared is just not there anymore.

Now you’ve got to figure out how you will cover all your expenses, obligations and any debt on your own.

And the only way to do this is with a plan and a budget.

Financial stress is difficult for everyone and the sooner you have a plan to overcome your financial stress, the more easily you’ll be able to be fully present when you’re with your kids.

There’s also no reason for you to work through all of this on your own either.

Depending on your situation, some of the resources you can tap into include: websites to help you more fully understand all facets of finances, websites to help you budget, financial advisors, and, if you’re ready, ask for a raise from your boss.

Why It’s So Hard to Date After Divorce When You’re a Single Dad

3. Parent

Parenting after divorce is different from parenting when you were married.

When your children are with you, you’re it — the parent. There’s no tag-teaming like when you were married.

This means that whatever comes up, you’ve got to deal with it.

Single parenting after divorce also means that you’re going to be interacting with your children’s other parent.

If you’re co-parenting, you’ll be interacting a lot. If you’re parallel parenting, you won’t be interacting as much. And if you have sole custody, you’ll be interacting even less.

Regardless of how often you need to personally interact with your children’s other parent, your children will be thinking about them.

So, despite being divorced and a single parent, the other parent will be part of your life, for the rest of your life.

So you must figure out how to make the relationship with your ex as conflict-free as possible.

When you do, you’ll be able to be the kind of dad you want to be. (As, yes this is possible, even if your ex is a bully or narcissist.)

And, you don’t have to figure this out on your own either. Some of the resources you can tap into here include family therapists, individual counselors, other single parents who successfully interact with their exes, and coaches.

When you begin making progress on all three steps, you’ll notice that things aren’t quite as bad as they were at the beginning of the whole divorce thing.

And the more progress you make the better things will get.

The unvarnished truth is life after divorce for dads who had the courage to do the work of dealing with their emotions, finances, and relationship with their children’s other parent is frickin’ great!

And when you get to the point where you’re loving your life again, you’ll look back and realize it was only possible because you got divorced.

This guest article originally appeared on YourTango.com: 3 Ways For Single Dads To Cope With Life After Divorce.

Rapid-onset Obesity with Hypothalamic dysfunction, Hypoventilation and Autonomic Dysregulation (ROHHAD)

Anti-Hypothalamus and Anti-Pituitary Auto­antibodies in ROHHAD Syndrome: Additional Evidence Supporting an Autoimmune Etiopathogenesis

HRP : Last 20 articles by S.karger Ag - 47m ago Preview

 
 
• AUTO POST
 
• SAVE TO EVERNOTE

Background: Rapid-onset Obesity with Hypothalamic dysfunction, Hypoventilation and Autonomic Dysregulation (ROHHAD) is a very rare and complex pediatric syndrome characterized by altered hypothalamic thermal regulation, pain threshold, and respiratory control, hyperphagia with rapid weight gain and, often, hypothalamic-pituitary dysfunction. Its etiopathogenesis remains undetermined. We investigated the presence of alterations to target genes and hypothalamic-pituitary autoimmunity in a patient with ­ROHHAD syndrome. Methods: A 3-year-old girl presenting with obesity after rapid weight gain was diagnosed with ROHHAD syndrome based on clinical features and abnormal biochemical and functional testing results. Because of worsening of rapid symptoms and demonstration of oligoclonal bands on cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis, she was treated with plasmapheresis, methylprednisolone, anti-CD20 monoclonal antibodies, and azathioprine. Despite initial partial clinical improvement, the patient soon died of cardiorespiratory arrest. Post-mortem, whole exome sequencing, high-resolution comparative genomic hybridization array, and optimized indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) analysis were performed on blood and CSF. Results: No putative causative genomic variants compatible with dominant or recessive inheritance nor clinically significant structural rearrangement were detected. IIF on serum and CSF demonstrated the presence of anti-pituitary and anti-hypothalamus autoantibodies. Conclusions: These findings support the involvement of autoimmunity in ROHHAD syndrome. However, response to immunosuppressive treatment was only transient and the patient died. Further cases are required to define the complex disease pathogenesis.
Horm Res Paediatr

Immunomodulatory Effects of Breast Milk on Food Allergy

Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunolo.. by Kirsi M. Järvinen, Hayley Martin, M.. - 46m ago Preview

 
 
• AUTO POST
 
• SAVE TO EVERNOTE

Human milk (HM) is not only considered the ideal nutrition source for term infants during the first six months of life by providing nutrients needed for growth and development 1, but it also provides antimicrobial and immunomodulatory factors providing defense against infections 2, 3. Thereby, breastfeeding provides continued exposure to the mother’s immune system during the crucial window of first few months of life, when the infant’s immune system is constantly developing. However, the immunomodulatory make up of HM has not been well-characterized and demonstrates a great deal of variability between mothers, which implies that the benefit of breastfeeding to the breastfed infants may differ between dyads.

Effect of carbapenem resistance on outcomes of bloodstream infection caused by Enterobacteriaceae in low-income and middle-income countries (PANORAMA): a multinational prospective cohort study

The Lancet Infectious Diseases by Andrew J Stewardson, Kalisvar Marim.. - 46m ago Preview

 
 
• AUTO POST
 
• SAVE TO EVERNOTE

Carbapenem resistance is associated with increased length of hospital stay and mortality in patients with bloodstream infections in LMICs. These data will inform global estimates of the burden of antimicrobial resistance and reinforce the need for better strategies to prevent, diagnose, and treat CRE infections in LMICs.

Cisplatin resistant lung cancer cells promoted M2 polarization of tumor-associated macrophages via the Src/CD155/MIF functional pathway

Latest Results for Journal of Ex... - 42m ago Preview

 
 
• AUTO POST
 
• SAVE TO EVERNOTE

Abstract Background

Lung cancer often ranks one of the most prevalent malignancies in the world. One of the most challenging aspects of treating late-stage lung cancer patients is the development of drug resistance, from both conventional chemo- and targeted therapeutic agents. Tumor-associated microphages (TAMs) have been shown to promote the survival and distant metastasis of lung cancer cells.

Methods

This study investigated the TAMs - modulating potential of cisplatin-resistant non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell lines, A549R and H460R by using bioinformatics approach, immunoblotting, immunofluorescence staining, migration, invasion, colony, lung sphere formation and xenograft tumorigenecity assays.

Results

In this study, we first demonstrated the elevated expression of oncogenic and stemenss markers such as Src, Notch1, macrophage inhibitory factor (MIF) and CD155 in trained cisplatin (CDDP)-resistant A549 and H460 cells (A549R and H460R cells). When co-cultured with TAMs, A549R and H460R cells promoted the M2-polarization in TAMs. In addition, A549R and H460R cells showed an increased self-renewal ability as they formed tumor spheres at higher frequency comparing to their parental counterparts. The increased MIF secretion by the A549R and H460R cells could be suppressed by a multiple kinase inhibitor, dasatinib, which resulted in the decreased of oncogenic network of Src, CD155 and MIF expression. Similarly, dasatinib treatment reduced the M2 polarization in TAMs and suppressed self-renewal ability of the A549R and H460R cells.

Conclusion

In summary, cisplatin resistant lung cancer cells not only showed an increased self-renewal ability but also promoted M2 polarization of TAMs via the secretion of MIF. These findings were linked to the increased Src-associated signaling as dasatinib treatment significantly reversed these phenomena. Thus, kinase inhibitors such as dasatinib may be of potential for treating cisplatin-resistant lung cancer by targeting both tumor and the tumor microenvironment.

Assessing the non-inferiority of prosthesis constructs used in total and unicondylar knee replacements using data from the National Joint Registry of England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man: a benchmarking study

BMJ Open Current Issue by Deere, K. C., Whitehouse, M. R., Po.. - 41m ago Preview

 
 
• AUTO POST
 
• SAVE TO EVERNOTE

Objectives

To investigate the relative performance of knee replacement constructs compared with the best performing construct and illustrate the substantial variability in performance.

Design

A non-inferiority study.

Setting

England and Wales.

Participants

All primary total and unicondylar knee replacements performed and registered in the National Joint Registry between 1 April 2003 and 31 December 2016.

Main outcome measures

Kaplan-Meier failure function for knee replacement constructs. Failure difference between best performing construct (the benchmark) and other constructs.

Methods

Using a non-inferiority analysis, the performance of knee replacement constructs by brand were compared with the best performing construct. Construct failure was estimated using the 1-Kaplan Meier method, that is, an estimate of net failure. The difference in failure between the contemporary benchmark construct and all other constructs were tested.

Results

Of the 449 different knee replacement constructs used, only 27 had ≥500 procedures at risk at 10 years postprimary, 18 of which were classified as inferior to the benchmark by at least 20% relative risk of failure. Two of these 18 were unicondylar constructs that were inferior by at least 100% relative risk. In men, aged 55–75 years, 12 of 27 (44%) constructs were inferior by at least 20% to the benchmark at 7 years postprimary. In women, aged 55–75 years, 8 of 32 (25%) constructs were inferior at 7 years postprimary. Very few constructs were classified as non-inferior to the contemporary benchmark.

Conclusions

There are few knee replacement constructs that can be shown to be non-inferior to a contemporary benchmark. Unicondylar knee constructs have, almost universally, at least 100% worse revision outcomes compared with the best performing total knee replacement. These results will help to inform patients, clinicians and commissioners when considering knee replacement surgery.

Assessing the non-inferiority of prosthesis constructs used in hip replacement using data from the National Joint Registry of England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man: a benchmarking study

BMJ Open Current Issue by Deere, K. C., Whitehouse, M. R., Po.. - 41m ago Preview

 
 
• AUTO POST
 
• SAVE TO EVERNOTE

Objectives

To investigate the relative performance of hip prosthesis constructs as compared with the best performing prosthesis constructs and illustrate the substantial variability in performance of currently used prostheses.

Design

A non-inferiority study.

Setting

The National Joint Registry for England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man (NJR).

Participants

All patients with a primary total hip replacement registered in the NJR between 1 April 2003 and 31 December 2016.

Main outcome measures

Kaplan-Meier failure function for hip prosthesis constructs. Failure difference between best performing construct and remaining constructs.

Methods

Using a non-inferiority analysis, the performance of hip prosthesis constructs by brand were compared with the best performing contemporary construct. Construct failure was estimated using the 1-Kaplan-Meier survival function method, that is, an estimate of net failure. The difference in failure between the contemporary benchmark and all other constructs was tested.

Results

Of the 4442 constructs used, only 134 had ≥500 procedures at risk at 3 years postprimary, 89 of which were not demonstrated to be inferior to the benchmark by at least 100% relative risk. By 10 years postprimary, there were 26 constructs with ≥500 at risk, 13 of which were not demonstrated to be inferior by at least 20% relative risk.

Even fewer constructs were not inferior to the benchmark when analysed by age and gender. At 5 years postprimary, there were 15 constructs in males and 11 in females, aged 55–75 years, not shown to be inferior.

Conclusions

There is great variability in construct performance and the majority of constructs have not been demonstrated to be non-inferior to contemporary benchmarks. These results can help to inform patients, clinicians and commissioners when considering hip replacement surgery.